Yik Yak? Seriously? Have they not heard of the 80s B-movie The Perils of Gwendolyn in the Land of the Yik Yak? How on earth did they not do a Google search prior to picking a product name? (that said the movie is now on page 3 of google, so whatever).

Well the only difference with the app is that it's something that students have constant access to. Though seriously 50 years ago kids still wrote mean and nasty things on PAPER and then passed it around, but I guess the target was less likely to see it that way. We had gossip boards when I was in school and people just generally being nasty, but not the constant exposure from the phones.

Not sure what there is to do though. Having experienced extreme bullying in youth I know how it can pretty much run you into the ground, especially if it is happening on top of (usually because of) some other problem.

So... nothing that 2 decades of internet experience hasn't taught us already... that anonymity brings out the inner Stanford Experiment in everyone.

You must be one of those optimists that I've read about:

I'm sure some of the anonymous sniping is by people who are playing double games, couldn't pull off attacks in person, or are otherwise enabled by the internet; but I'd be shocked if the harassment online isn't a continuation by other means of the harassment going on offline.

For good, relentless, inescapable, bullying, of the type that properly drives the victim into supine hopelessness, multi-medium coverage is just an extension by other means of old-fashioned close-and-in-person work.

Maybe its the first hit for gossipy teenager on some stock photo site?

Do you really think it's likely that girls are avoiding this? I think it's a reasonably safe assumption that both boys and girls are using this site, and I would be utterly unsurprised to learn that that the userbase is over 50% female.